We all know the deal, the new year comes, we promise
ourselves we will be better people and accomplish X amount of goals and then a
month later we are back to our normal routine with nothing accomplished and an
overwhelming sense of disappointment. At least that’s how it goes in my life. I
start my year off with so much fire and energy and then it quickly dwindles
with each passing day. So how can we actually accomplish our resolutions this New
Year and make lasting changes? Well let me be the first to tell you, I am no
expert, I am trying to make these changes right along with you. A little over a
year ago I became truly bothered by my procrastination, laziness, and lack of
productivity. Finally after making a lot of mistakes and honestly getting
worse, I can now say I’m getting better about taking action to accomplish my goals.
I am able to do better by way of prayer and wise counsel but I am still
improving in this area. Here are some tips that have helped me so far:
- Eliminate
the barriers. The first step to making lasting changes is to reflect
on what has gotten in the way in the past. If you don’t address what
hindered your progress in the past, it will continue to block you in the
future. For me it was anxiety and insecurities that stopped my progress in
a lot of areas. I had to address those issues before I could move on to
accomplishing goals. Some ways you can eliminate the barriers is to first
think back to some of your unaccomplished goals, what was it that got in
the way? Most of the time it is laziness or lack of motivation but sometimes
deeper issues can get in the way like depression or anxiety. You may
actually find that when you identify the barriers, that you unearth the
root of many of your problems. If this is the case, you may want to
consider getting professional help to address those issues before you move
forward with the goals on your list. If it is the case that you are trying
to overcome laziness and you are struggling to get the motivation to
follow through with your resolutions, the next few points might be able to
help.
- Take
action, even when you don’t feel like it. For me, the hardest part is
just finding the motivation to start but once I do, everything flows
fairly smoothly. This year if you want to make lasting changes, you will
need to practice taking action to accomplish your goals. When you think
about waiting or ceasing action on your goals all together, identify what
might be holding you back, call it out, remind yourself of the costs, and try
to push through it. There is so much power in calling out your areas of weakness
and reminding yourself of what you will lose if you do not take action.
For instance if you know you are supposed to be working out twice a week and
you don’t feel like it, call it out! If you can say to yourself “I do not
feel like working out this week but I know that is laziness and I know I
will be derailing my progress if I don’t” it can help you face whatever is
holding you back, head on, and talk yourself into action. They say the
more you do, the more you can do. When you make the effort to take action,
even when it’s hard, even when you’re scared, even when there’s opposition
then you are producing momentum. That momentum will continue to build and
it can carry you through to actually accomplish your goals, as long as you
continue to choose action over idleness.
- Incorporate
accountability. If you have trouble taking action on your own then you
may need to incorporate accountability into your routine. When I first got
saved, my goal was to read my bible every day. For months struggled to get
the motivation to start and continue reading my bible regularly but this
was something that I knew I needed to do for my spiritual growth. Finally
after months of slowly increasing my bible studies on my own, I decided to
ask my roommate to do bible studies together. Once I became accountable to
my roommate, it was so much easier to actually have daily bible studies
and it was also much more engaging than doing it by myself. You can
incorporate accountability in a couple of ways. One of the easiest ways is
by telling someone about your goals and establishing check-ins on your
progress. You could take accountability to another level by working with a
friend who is trying to accomplish the same goal as you. Working with a
partner or a group to accomplish a goal can help you feel a sense of responsibility
to actively participate in accomplishing the goal and it could also cultivate
motivating comradery. Another way you can incorporate accountability is by
establishing an accountability partner. This goes beyond working on a
specific goal with a friend. An accountability partner will be there to
keep you accountable for several areas in your life that you struggle to
stay on track. Often, in turn, you keep that person accountable as well.
It is best for an accountability partner to have the same general goals
and values as you so that they will be more inclined to hold you
accountable to the things that are important to you. So however you choose
to incorporate it, accountability can be a very helpful tool to keep you on
track.
- Get
organized. Organization is key when it comes to being productive and
accomplishing goals. First of all it is important to plan out your goals
and create a timeline in which you want to complete those goals. Add the deadlines
to your calendar to keep you on schedule. You might also want to break
down your goals into small achievable tasks and add those specific tasks
to your calendar or a to-do list. You can also organize your goals in
terms of your priorities. If you have 10 resolutions for the New Year you
can categorize them in terms of importance, feasibility, short-term vs
long-term and so on. Determining priority helps you focus and set your
sights on the goals that make the most sense to address at that time. Done
right, organization can be a very useful tool to accomplish your goals
this year.
- Reward
yourself. If intrinsic motivation and accountability are not enough,
rewards might be helpful for you. Once you have a timeline and you break
down your goals into small easy to accomplish tasks, you can reward
yourself for accomplishing those tasks! The rewards should be something
that will motivate you. A tip about incorporating rewards is that you want
to establish rewards that you would enjoy but at the same time do not
contradict your goals. So if your goal is to stay sober, it probably would
not be a good idea to reward yourself with a drink. Self-care rewards are
the best if you can implement them into your routine. Self-care is about
taking time to treat yourself and address the needs that you have, as you
might do for others. Often we get into a habit of working and taking care
of others but we forget to take care of ourselves. Self-care activities
would be things like getting doing an activity you enjoy, getting a
massage, or having a night out with friends. Rewards are fun ways to boost
motivation to accomplish your goals!
I hope that these tips prove useful for you as you embark on
this New Year. My goals this year are to
be intentional about trusting God, dying to self, and being productive in all
that I do. I plan to incorporate all of these tips into my everyday practice so
that I can make my resolutions a reality.
Action Steps: Remember it’s okay to struggle and have
set-backs on the path toward achieving your goals. If that happens, keep going,
stay accountable, get organized, and reward yourself along the way. We can make
this year a great one if we try our best and through our efforts we are able to
learn and grow.
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